Weberhaus vs Gruber Holzhaus: Offer Questions

We are planning a ~200m2 single-family house south of Munich without a basement and are in the final selection stage with two companies for our floor plan: Weberhaus and Gruber Holzbau.

With Weberhaus, we arrive at 625,000€ (according to the consultant, this already includes a solid buffer for a nicer staircase, a second shower bathroom, tiled walk-in showers, Smart Home Basic, fireplace).

Weberhaus says we must calculate about 90,000€ for all additional costs (connection work, architect, building application, basic outdoor facilities such as paving the access path, lawn, etc.).

On top of that, another 20-30,000€ for a finished double garage &

Gruber comes to 670,000€, but earthworks are already included – unfortunately, they do not itemize this separately. Additional costs estimate is comparable.

Questions:

1. From your perspective, is this realistic or have the additional costs been significantly underestimated here?

2. Weberhaus wants 30,000€ for painting work including baseboards as well as 35,000€ for oak parquet including installation. The salesperson already said that they are very expensive here and recommend awarding this contract yourself or doing it yourself. Our impression was that they are not really keen on this trade – can someone tell us something about this?

3. We have read a lot about contract design. However, we realized that nothing can actually be changed in the contract with either company, especially when it comes to a specific completion date. For a 10,000€ surcharge, Weberhaus offers the possibility to agree on an exact schedule, i.e., a fixed date instead of these weekly indications for the duration of the trades. Are we missing something or is this just accepted as normal?

4. Subcontractors: Weberhaus’s contract states that they can use subcontractors. The salesperson says that the only subcontractor they use is the electrical company; all other work is done by their own construction teams. Is that really true?

Otherwise, we are grateful for any other suggestions or hints that come to mind spontaneously regarding either of the two companies.

Many thanks!

With Weberhaus we come to 625T€

Do they also offer that including the slab?

The seller already said that they are very expensive here and they recommend contracting it yourself or doing it yourself. Our impression was they are not really keen on this trade, can someone tell us something about it?

Yes, that may well be the case. However, I also see no reason to have Weberhaus include these interior fittings. These are classic trades that you either do yourself or have done by a regional specialist company.

Gruber comes to 670T€, but earthworks are already included in that - unfortunately, they do not specify that separately.

Well, they should also have a construction service description.

Yes, the floor slab including frost protection would be included with Weberhaus

Oh. Where does one even begin? – I’ll give it a try. It is difficult to advise such people who on the one hand believe they are near the final stage of their decision-making process, but on the other hand one knows absolutely nothing about them (except that they are still very new to the forum). My impression is (among other things, architect services are mentioned by the house manufacturer) that you have inquired with a self-design. With self-design, my reflex is again: my first thought here might be a nasty cost trap, because laymen tend to plan about 20% too large without realizing it. Then I read about the "end of the final selection," but I don’t know how your distillation methodology was, nor which candidates were in the casting panel and why they dropped out. Next, two names are thrown into the ring: Weberhaus (well known to me as a big name) and a nobody (possibly, however, a top address in his region), who apparently also builds wooden houses. He is called Gruber Holzbau, but I cannot identify him: is it "Holzbau Gruber" (Kirchweidach), "Gruber Holzhaus" (Roding), or yet another Gruber?

Weberhaus is an industrial manufacturer; Gruber presumably belongs more to the craft side. To me, this already sounds methodologically very questionable as an amateurish decision distillation. The differences between a big name and a regional top dog lie much more on the company level than on the product level. So presumably "apples vs. pears at its best," aka a flawed comparison. We do not know the course of the selection process so far, so I am puzzled why exactly one nationwide wood specialist and one regional wood specialist are in the "final" (and not, for example, a regional stone builder against the regional wood builder, or two apples or two pears).

Is there a justified reason in your wishes and/or house design to compare only wood builders? And why is one of them an industrial supplier? (The typical reason to consider a craft carpenter is that one is, say, “eco-specialist” and wants some wall construction ingredient to be more “organic,” then usually the industrial suppliers are mistrusted and do not even make the shortlist). The typical reason for a regional preference is integrity and reliability of the kind found in traditional family businesses (but then I would expect a stonemason Huber to be opposing the wood builder Gruber).

Regarding point 1: these ancillary costs are not dependent on the supplier, so they should not differ wildly in the estimate. I would ask the more expensive one for an explanation of what they think the cheaper one might have forgotten.

2. Weberhaus wants €30k for painting work including baseboards and €35k for oak parquet including installation. The seller already said that they are very expensive here and recommended doing it yourself or as a self-performed work. Our impression was that they are not really interested in this trade – can someone tell us more about this?

This suggestion would be an absolute dismissal reason for me against the seller and a glancing blow for the provider. It is highly unprofessional, in two respects: Weberhaus is definitely not a shell supplier; from Weberhaus I expect a turnkey house ready for the housewarming party. If I sign with Weberhaus, even subcontracting the doorbell plaque engraving is absolutely out of the question. My 600 SEL either comes fully fueled or my next three dozen 40-ton trucks are from Iveco instead of Mercedes. Half pregnant does not exist, half premium neither. I would consider the seller’s loyalty to the employer to be questionable. The second reason against this suggestion is the issue of acceptance and warranty – where is the cut-off point where/when the finished work is accepted from the house manufacturer?

Not really interested in this trade must not be the case – but possibly there might be a reason for you to look at yourselves: do you want any qualities here that fall outside the scope of the sample catalog? (As I said: this same homebuilding family is usually either at an industrial supplier OR a master craftsman’s firm at the right address).

3. We have read a lot about contract design. However, we have noticed that with both nothing in the contract can really be changed, especially regarding a concrete completion date. For an extra €10k, however, Weberhaus offers a fixed schedule, so a fixed date instead of these weekly indications regarding the duration of trades.

This part of the calculation is basically insurance mathematics. €10k surcharge is therefore insurance premium for the risk that Weberhaus does not meet its promised completion date. Even if I were an insurance mathematician, I would still need to know the amount of the penalty you intend to claim in case of breach, otherwise calculation is impossible.

4. Subcontractors: The Weberhaus contract states that they can use subcontractors. The seller says the only subcontractor they use is the electrical company; everything else is done by their own construction crews. Is this really true?

Without subcontractors, the business of a supraregional general contractor is not manageable at all. Since legally you have nothing to do with the subcontractors, this can be completely irrelevant to you. Whether Weberhaus is the client or employer of the tilers and electricians does not affect your contract for work and services with Weberhaus. Weberhaus itself will likely be carpentry (possibly “and joinery” under craft law). It is usual for house manufacturers to have regular subcontractors who do not travel to every corner of their sales area. Then the local electrician gets the contract. Drywall work is usually done by permanent multi-skilled laborers. It is amazing how little customers can or want to imagine the operating processes of their contractors.

However, we noticed that with both, actually nothing can be changed in the contract, especially when it comes to a concrete completion date.

Yes, the contractual terms are usually fixed with companies, as they are legally approved by large corporations. Any change means they are not safe for them. So: take it or leave it.

For an extra 10,000€, you can, however, agree on a precise schedule with Weberhaus, i.e. a fixed date instead of these weekly indications for the duration of the trades.

And what does that bring you? What good is it if they write calendar week 16-17, but only start work in week 18 for trade xy. But you have the certainty for 10,000€ that they will do the trade in week 16, and then nothing happens in week 17 and 18? The handover or acceptance date is also named concretely. I see no advantage there.

Earthworks already included.

Earthworks is such a topic: usually 30 cm are included in the description of services, everything else costs you extra. That applies according to the description of services. Only when they have a soil investigation report, can they name further items. These depend on your property, so have to be paid by the client.

Are we missing something or do you just accept it like this?

You accept it like this if you trust your contractual partner.

Thank you very much for the explanations!

Maybe a brief background:
We searched for a house to buy for a long time (because the building process is rather daunting) and found nothing suitable. Then we found a great plot and, after more than a year of unsuccessful house hunting, decided well then we’ll build there.

The selection process included national and regional (Bavaria) general contractors for solid construction and prefabricated timber frame construction.

We both don’t want to get fancy with the house - we want 2 children’s rooms, 2 home offices, 2 bathrooms, and (since building without a basement) 10m2 of additional storage space. That brings us to about 200m2 of living space. What’s important to us is to feel well taken care of by the developer and to have to put in as little work/time ourselves as possible.

Topics like wall structure in timber framing, for example, are more or less irrelevant to me - I have read quite a bit about it. We looked at various model homes and in the end, as a layman, I can’t judge what is better or worse. I just assume that the big providers offer the current state of technology here...

Our budget (for house and incidental costs) is 800,000-850,000€. Solid house providers were out of the question - their offers were all at least 3,800-4,000€ per m2.

Prefabricated timber frame houses remain. Schwörerhaus, Fingerhaus, and Bien-Zenker (may have been due to the seller and the model homes) were priced similarly to Weberhaus but in the end the gut feeling didn’t fit. To finally make a choice, we said in the end that they differ only in small details, so we’ll take the one we feel best about into the final selection.

It is Gruber Holzbau from Roding (we have a reference house here from people who have lived in it for 10 years and are satisfied, and it with the process

Regarding the delivery date:
Weberhaus only writes very vaguely here "completion stage 1 is regularly reached after x weeks," etc. That means no commitment to a specific week. Is that normal?!

What also struck us negatively is that Weberhaus states in the contract that a missing application of the exterior plaster may not prevent final acceptance.
What do you think about that? In the worst case, you then have scaffolding for months / a house without plaster?

As I said, we want a reasonably large house but are simply trying to find a provider with solid quality and as few problems as possible. Of course, we are also worried that currently one or another insolvency is looming and the order situation in the industry is not exactly the best (one wonders how secure it is when you sign today and the house is supposed to be ready mid-2026...)